Inside the world of a London media entrepreneur

January 2010

06/01/2010

According to the Wall Street Journal (a news organisation), Being a photographer or a journalist is one of the worst jobs in the world. (via Richard Humphries).

Their new report states that the best job in America is as an Actuary. Photojournalist is ranked at number 189 out of 200, and Newspaper Reporter only a little higher at 184.

Supposedly the report is based on five criteria -- environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands and stress.

This survey rates newspaper work as more crappy than:

157

CORRECTION OFFICER

165

NUCLEAR PLANT DECONTAMINATION TECHNICIAN

169

CARPET INSTALLER

178

DRILL-PRESS OPERATOR

Hell, even stirring shit for a living rates higher:

117

SEWAGE PLANT OPERATOR

This is the largest load of rubbish I've ever heard.

If you're lucky enough to work for a national newspaper in the UK for a decade or two you will have enough life experience to fill many volumes of your memoirs. You're likely to meet world leaders, work in war zones, dine with movie stars, come face to face with incredible animals and travel the world a good few times over.

As a photojournalist, you sit down with friends to discuss the week gone by and feel reluctant even to open your mouth. To tell them that you spent the week actually involved in all the things that they had to watch on the TV or listen to on the radio feels like boasting.

As Rupert Murdoch once said, being a newspaper journalist is the best job in the world. Strange that his own website puts list together that is so contradictory.